The council also failed to table Resolution 936, a related agenda item petitioned by Councilman Dave Ballweg. Resolution 936 intended to bring an agenda item forward during the Fiscal Year 2018-19 budget process “that addresses the amount of revenue collected year-to-date from all marijuana related businesses.”

Ballweg asked that the item be tabled because Mayor Al Litman and councilman George Rapson were both absent from the meeting. In Litman’s absence, councilman Geno Withelder operated as mayor pro-tem, leaving just Ballweg and councilmen Rich Green and Brian Wursten to vote on issues.

“I think it’s inappropriate for only a very minimal forum here to make these decisions. This is a significant budget decision,” he said. “I just want this considered at the same time as that actual ordinance passage, I just want a full discussion is what I’m asking for.”

The resolution was originally tabled for the next meeting, but public comments were accidentally skipped. After Withelder asked for public comments, the motion to table it died when Rich Green changed his vote.

Green didn't fundamentally disagree with the resolution, but said that the language of it needs to be changed.

“I think the resolution needs to be rewritten,” he said.

Ballweg interjected after the vote, saying he would be reintroducing the resolution for discussion at the next meeting.

"This is not going to make me popular, but at the last meeting Mr. Wursten reintroduced his ordinance to bring it back, so I'm going to reintroduce this resolution for the next meeting, just to let everybody know it will be on the agenda for the next meeting," Ballweg said.

The resolution, which will be brought up in some form again at the Sept. 12 meeting, would ensure any money going toward local schools from recreational cannabis business license fees would go through the budget process before being distributed. Documents attached to the agenda item for Resolution 936 state that “at this time, it is difficult to predict the amount of business licensing fees that will be collected because this is a new industry in Nevada and there is no historical data."

Wursten, who petitioned Bill No. 526, has been adamant about getting local dollars generated from recreational cannabis sales into schools. He was skeptical that state dollars would find their way to the Virgin Valley anytime soon.

“We’re not going to see any from the state, I’ll guarantee you that,” Wursten said.

State law says that schools will receive money from statewide recreational cannabis sales, but that money first must pay for administrative costs of the Department of Taxation before being sent out to school districts using a formula based on local revenue sources. School districts would then be in charge of allocating the money received from the state.

“What helped me as far as when we started to talk about marijuana is the fact that we were going to help the school systems. This is the only way I see we can do it,” Wursten said.

The council voted to introduce Bill No. 526 at its meeting, where it will be heard with whatever revised resolution brought forward by Ballweg. The decision of city council will essentially be to fund schools using recreational cannabis dollars after discussing it within the context of the budget, or to do so directly through Bill No. 526.

Among the differences between the two is the timetable in which that money would be seen by the schools. Ballweg’s proposed resolution would move the issue to next year’s budget discussions. Bill No. 526 would create a fund as soon as the city collects its first payment in October from Deep Roots’ business license.

The possibility that the decision would be made much later through next year’s budget concerned some citizens.

“If we put this off until the budget year, I think we as a public, as parents of students in this school district, would like to make sure the council is going to say we aren’t going to use it all to go and buy city vehicles, or we’re going to use it here,” Clarissa Larsen said during public comments.

Follow Lucas Thomas on Twitter, @LucasThomas14, or call him at 702-232-0603.